Friends ... Part 2

Greg and Lauri arrived today so our entourage is now complete.  The six of us are here together for over a week; everything off to a good start; things can’t be better.   It is so nice to have friends again (… not like Diane’s company is all THAT bad).

Getting Greg and Lauri back from the airport went off without a hitch.   We used Plan C: take a taxi.  Dayton and Gaye met us at Greg and Lauri’s hotel, and we went immediately for a whirlwind right bank tour of Paris.  We walked to Place de la Madeleine for lunch at Café Madeleine.  From there, we walked straight to the Place de la Concorde and on to the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.  We browsed a few shops, drank a bit of coffee and eventually got to the Arc de Triomphe.  We snapped some pictures. 

From there, we jumped on the Metro, got off at Cite, and walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Surprisingly, there was almost no one entering the Notre Dame.  It has been a 4 day weekend for a lot of Europeans and Paris has been busy. 

We stepped inside the Cathedral.  A Mass had just begun and we were pretty much the last tourists they let in.  The chandeliers were lit, incense was burning, the organ was being played, a soloist was singing and clergy were at the ready.  Again, another amazing Notre Dame experience.  It struck me that this same service had been acted out pretty much every Sunday in that church for the last 700 years.  Unbelievable.

After the Notre Dame, we all bought crepes at our favorite crepe stand which was nearby.  In need of beverages, we also went to a Brasserie on the Ile Saint-Louis. 

Greg wanted to walk to keep awake, no one objected, so we walked along the Left Bank shoreline to the Louvre, descended through the main pyramid entrance (there was virtually no one there), strolled through the Louvre Arcade, popped out again in the Jardin des Tuileries, strolled through that and I, thinking that Greg and Lauri would be getting tired, tactfully drifted back toward their hotel.  No, no, no; we went out for drinks at an Irish Pub across the street from their hotel.  Only I was tired.  As I write this, I suspect that they are currently back outside, walking to the Eiffel Tower or something.  I am going to bed: I am beat.

This week looks like it is going to be fun. 

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